“He that descended is the
same also that ascended far above all the heavens that he
might fill all things” (Ephesians 4:10).

“And he put all things in
subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over
all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness
of him that filleth all in all” (Ephesians 1:22,23).

“That he
might fill all things... his body, the fulness of him
that filleth all in all”.

We are going, as the Lord enables
us, to consider those two statements along four lines:
firstly, the purpose which they indicate; secondly, the
means by which the purpose has its realisation and
fulfilment; thirdly, the method by which the means will
fulfil its vocation; and fourthly, the obligation that
rests upon those concerned.

The Purpose

We come to these complementary words
that we have read, and beginning with the purpose that is
indicated. You have this letter to the Ephesians before
you — so called “to the Ephesians”, but
you can just cross that right out, because it was not in
the original letter at all. It was a circular letter.
Ephesus may have been the first place, though we don’t
know.

When we take up this letter, this
mighty document, we find that we are, as we read through
it, moving in the realm of sovereign purpose. That is an
unmistakable characteristic of the letter and its
language. There are three phrases, or words, which
constantly recur in this letter, and they indicate that
when we come here we are in the presence of something
very positive and very definite as to purpose.

The first phrase is “His will”,
and you must look upon that not just as something
willing, but as an object. It is a very definite thing.
This will of God is something very concrete. You can look
at the letter and move with me in it in these
connections: “Having foreordained us unto adoption
as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to
the good pleasure of his will” (Ephesians 1:5);
“Having made known unto us the mystery of his will”
(Ephesians 1:9); “In whom also we were made a
heritage, having been foreordained according to the
purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his will” (Ephesians 1:11). All those come so
quickly at the beginning of this letter, laying the
foundation for all that is to follow, and each phrase
carries its own significance. Surely they do impress us
with this fact: that we are here presented with something
tremendous — “the good pleasure of his will”;
“the counsel of his will”, and so on.

Then we turn to Ephesians 5:17:
“Wherefore be ye not foolish, but understand what
the will of the Lord is”. May I say again that we,
of course, daily and continually ask that we might know
the Lord’s will, but in so doing we are thinking in
relation to many details of our lives. We want to know
the Lord’s will as to whether we should go here or
not go here, do this or not do this, and so on. We say
that we want to know the will of the Lord and we go to
the Lord about it and ask Him to show us His will. That
is specific and particular in its application. It is
quite right, but it is not what the apostle is talking
about here. We must understand that this letter
comprehends the church. Individual lives come into
that, but it is the church that is in view and does that will
— write it with a capital “W” if you
like. That is behind everything here.

Then there is that word “purpose”.
As you know that is characteristic of this letter. We
have just read the first occurrence of it: “In whom
also we were made a heritage, having been foreordained
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things
after the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11);
“According to the eternal purpose (the margin says
‘the purpose of the ages’) which he purposed in
Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ephesians 3:11).

And if we want a third emphasis we
come to this word “foreordained”. “Having
foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus
Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of
his will” (Ephesians 1:5); “In whom also we
were made a heritage, having been foreordained according
to the purpose of him...” (Ephesians 1:11).

His will — big will: His
purpose of the ages: foreordained accordingly.

So, if this all refers to the church
— and we are that — then we certainly are
moving in the realm of tremendous sovereign purpose,
something laid down, fixed, irrevocable, unalterable, and
laid down by God before the foundation of the world.

One thing from which we and all the
Lord’s people — and we might say further all
men — need to be delivered is this sense, this
growing sense, this intensifying sense in the universe of
futility, meaninglessness. There is a growing fatalism in
men’s hearts because they cannot explain. They
cannot get the meaning — and fatalism is a most
soul-destroying thing. It just says, “Well, if it is
to be, it will be. If it is not to be, it will not be,
and that is all there is to it. You had just better give
it up; take your hands off. It is going to be and you
cannot alter it. It will happen”, and so on. That is
the very heart of weakness, of looseness of life, of
uncertainty, indefiniteness, of insecurity, of utter
aimlessness. It takes every sense of purpose and meaning
out of existence. And that is a growing thing. Why is it
that over this world today there is a wave of suicides as
has never been known in its civilised history before? We
don’t dwell upon that, and you may not be acquainted
with it. Some of you from the continent know about it,
however, especially in northern Europe, where it is just
like a terrible wave. It is growing, and it is because of
this very thing, this feeling of fate and fate being
against one. A hopeless impotence in the presence of
forces with which men cannot cope and which they cannot
explain. This fatalism, is the most disintegrating thing
in anyone’s life, or in any society. There is no
cohesiveness about this, no holding together — and
that goes right to the heart of this letter... “In
whom each several building, fitly framed together”
(Ephesians 2:21). The answer is in Him. We will leave
that for the moment.

In this letter for Christians, for
the church, we are right in the presence of something
which is so much the opposite of all that, such a
contradiction to all that: His will, concrete, divine,
positive, settled, established from all eternity, which
cannot be defeated, or deflected, or in any way
frustrated in its full and final realisation. It is fixed
and His purpose stands, and according to it you and I,
and all who are in this body of Christ, are foreordained.
That is fairly solid ground! And is it not true that the
greatest need is to be on solid ground in days such as
these?

So, over against all this state of
things, which we have only touched upon so lightly, is
God’s fixed and established purpose — something
that God has fixed and established and in relation to
which it says here: “He chose us in him before the
foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4).

The purpose, then, begins with God’s
Son. The thing, which God has settled in His unalterable,
unchangeable, irrevocable will is that His Son, shall
ultimately fill all things. This is the Bible, this is
the Word of God, and, of course, we are confronted with
whether we believe the Scriptures when we read things
like that. You wonder, perhaps, why such a thing is said,
because you all do believe the Scriptures. I venture to
say, in the awful upheavals and shakings of the end times
the faith of the most devout believer will be shaken as
to the Scriptures, as to the Word of God. Forgive me if
that sounds a wrong thing to say. However, whether you
can endorse it by your own experience, or not, there is a
tremendous shaking going on amongst Christians today as
to whether the Bible can really be relied upon.

Here, then, is the statement —
sheer, definite, positive, because it comes right from
God Himself — that He has in His eternal counsel
settled it, with full knowledge of all that would rise
against it, with full knowledge of all history of this
world and of the work of evil and seeming contradictions,
that “In the end My Son shall fill all things”.

But He has alongside of that, just
as definitely, positively, categorically and finally
decided and determined that a certain body, a certain
elect body of people are to be a medium, vessel, channel,
instrument for the fulfilment of that determined purpose
concerning His Son. That elect body is known to us by
various names, but in general “the church”.
Here in Ephesians it is “the church, which is his
body” — an elect body.

The Means of
its Realisation and Fulfilment

That leads us, then, to the second
thing — the means: the church, the elect body of
Christ. God has foreseen this body and chosen this body
before the world was in Christ: it is set down here in
the Scriptures as a fact, a definite fact. And you know
that God’s facts are very awkward things and very
stubborn things. If you come up against God’s facts
that is an end of all argument. And here is the fact. God
has done this. It is stated to be so in the Scriptures of
truth. There is the fact.

But then, God has not only fixed it
from eternity. He has given the revelation of it in time.
The Holy Spirit has come from God, from heaven, for the
specific purpose of making known this very thing, first
giving the revelation of it and then, by wonderfully
sovereign means, raising up and choosing vessels,
preserving vessels, anointing vessels, and enabling
vessels, through untold opposition and adversity and
suffering, to fulfil this ministry of bringing to the
people of God the knowledge of this very thing. The
revelation has come.

We have not measured, and probably
in time we shall never be able to measure, all the
tremendous triumph that lay in this one instance of Paul
at last being able to give this revelation in fulness.
That man ought to have been dead a dozen, a hundred
times! If the devil could have done it he would have
been. That man ought to have been absolutely neutralised
again and again, not only by the evil powers, but also by
men. His battles were tremendous battles. Everywhere his
steps were dogged, his path was followed. This man was
marked down for destruction, and for the entire and final
discrediting of himself and his ministry. But we have it
on record in this fulness, as we saw in the last chapter.
It looks like a little pamphlet, doesn’t it, this
letter to the Ephesians? What does it amount to on paper?
Yet it is the greatest document that has ever entered
into this creation! It is the embodiment of the exceeding
greatness of God’s power in a man’s life for a
ministry, and for the revelation of this eternal purpose
of God for the church.

And so God has sovereignly done this
thing to give it to the church, to make it known that
there is an elect body in existence in the eternal
counsels of God, and that that elect body is the object
of this dispensation — particularly to be called out
of the nations.

All the difficulties and problems,
of course, arise there, theologically, for God does not
say who belongs to this elect. He has never yet said to
you and me directly and personally: “Look here! I
chose you. You belong to the elect.” He does not do
that. This problem exists everywhere amongst people
— “I wonder if I am one of the foreordained,
predestinated. I have reason to question whether I belong
to that.” You know all the difficulty because God
has not just said to individuals directly, in this way,
that they are of the elect, but God works on this line.

We may touch this more intimately
presently, but you are familiar with this sort of thing:
that when the Lord brings to many people the light and
the revelation and the truth that is here, when it comes
their way, or when they come its way by the sovereignty
of God, you watch and you see, either literally or
metaphorically, their mouths opening and their eyes open
wide — “This is what I have been wanting. I did
not know what it was, but I have had a great longing for
something, and this is it. This just answers to something
in me which has prepared me for this. Something has been
going on. Even in my unconverted state I knew that there
was something more in life than I had. I was dissatisfied
and I knew it. I went here and I went there, and I went
somewhere else to find it, but could not find it. But
this is it!” Isn’t that true? Well, that is our
experience, our own experience and the experience of
many. God just works, you see. And when the revelation,
the light comes, there has been a preparation, perhaps an
unconscious preparation very largely — that is, an
unenlightened preparation, in darkness, in distance, far
away from God, and yet, something drawing, some hunger,
longing — and then the content, and it is just as
though the hand goes into the glove: they fit! “This
is it!” That is how the sovereignty works in
relation to the elect. And if you have not seen it in
every case you have met yet, don’t give it up. I
mean, you may think of people who are not yet like that.
They are showing no signs of that. Ah, but the end is not
yet. The time may come when through deep experiences,
through suffering history, their hearts will be prepared
and touched and you will find they respond. That is all
we need say about this matter of election, or ordination.
God works accordingly.

I want to put this word in here. It
is to remind you and point out to you that in this letter
that we have before us the Gospel and the eternal purpose
are united. That is a very important thing to remember.
Some people, I am afraid, have a mentality: “Well,
the Gospel, the simple Gospel, is one thing. All this is
another.” Indeed, we have known very strong
reactions, people saying: “All right, you can have
all your deep teaching, if you like. You can have all
that sort of thing, if it appeals. We are satisfied with
the simple Gospel.” The Lord have mercy upon such
people! Here you have the profoundest document, as I have
said, that has ever been given from God to man, and it
has, not as two different and separate things but as
joined right in, the Gospel and the eternal purpose.

Look at the word “Gospel”
in this. Paul links it in himself. This ministry that was
given to him, this full, rich, profound ministry he calls
“his Gospel”. He was chosen for this Gospel.
Oh, if only our gospel were richer and fuller we would
have much better results. Don’t divide these things!
Remember, this is the Gospel. What is it? It is the good
news. “He chose us in him before the foundation of
the world.” There is an imperative need of linking
the purpose with salvation in our preaching, and not
leaving salvation as something in itself, something
smaller than it really is, but linking purpose with
salvation always. And I don’t think we shall get
very far with the kind of Christians that will be until
we have attended to that weakness and remedied it, and
brought in relation to salvation the full purpose of God
in salvation.

The Method By Which the
Means Will Fulfil its Vocation

We come next, then, thirdly, to the
method. The purpose... the means, the church, the
elect... then the method.

Let us remind ourselves again that
the apostle is particularly occupied with the church in
this letter. It runs throughout, and then it emerges in
one sublime definition, which he calls: “This
mystery” (Ephesians 5:32). You must look upon
familiar words to us in the light of the whole of the
letter, the whole revelation.

Reading: “Wives, be in
subjection unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For
the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is
the head of the church, being himself the saviour of the
body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so let the
wives also be to their husbands in everything. Husbands,
love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church,
and gave himself up for it; that he might sanctify it,
having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word,
that he might present the church to himself a glorious
church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but
that it should be holy and without blemish. Even so ought
husbands also to love their own wives as their own
bodies. He that loveth his own wife loveth himself: for
no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and
cherisheth it, even as Christ also the church; because we
are members of his body. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and
the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great:
but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church.”
(Ephesians 5:22-32).

Now, we do not know all that was in
the mental background of the apostle. We know that he had
a very full and deep and thorough knowledge of the Old
Testament, which was his only Bible, and that it was ever
with him, either in his full consciousness or in his
subconsciousness. We do not know, but the Holy Spirit
knew, whether behind what was being written here was an
Old Testament story. Whether it was or not, when you come
to think about it, it does seem that it is so. The Old
Testament story, gathered into one little book... the
Book of Esther.

Whether what I am going to say is
the right interpretation to put upon that book or not, I
am not very concerned about at the moment, because I
believe that it does serve as a very good illustration of
what we are now considering — that is, the method by
which this means, the church, the body, is to fulfil its
eternal vocation of bringing the fulness of Christ into
expression.

I suppose you remember the story of
Esther. It is not necessary for me to take you through it
thoroughly. It opens with a picture of happenings in the
great Medo-Persian kingdom and palace. Ahasuerus, in all
his glory, power and authority, having a banquet lasting
a long time for all the rulers, the princes and the
governors of his great domain, from India to Ethiopia.
That is no small thing! Gathering all these
representatives and having this wonderful time, feasting,
revelling and displaying his glory. And then, when that
is over, gathering his immediately intimate company of
counsellors for seven days of another feast. All this
pageantry has been going on, and as it is in its full
swing, Ahasuerus gives command to his eunuchs to go and
bring in the queen, the Queen Vashti. It is said that she
was beautiful, and he wanted to display her beauty to
those who were assembled. He made a feast for the
purpose.

Vashti refused to go in, to obey the
king’s command. She stayed away. The king was
fiercely angry and appealed to his counsellors: “What
does the law say in a case like this?” You know
their answer: “Well, you know, it is not only to the
king that she has done mischief. All our wives will begin
to behave like that if you let her off.” Well of
course, that is persuasive. The result: the king stripped
Vashti of her royal rights and cut her off and set her
aside. She was no longer his queen.

There was a vacancy, a vacuum, an
emptiness, for how long we do not know, but it must be
filled if the king was to have all that he should have as
king. And there the story opened concerning Esther, and
you are familiar with that. She was there, a captive, an
exile, an alien to that kingdom. She was in the king’s
harem, but exactly how it came to pass, what is the
detail, we don’t know, but somehow or other the
sovereignty of that throne was at work, and Esther was
seen, was known, was focussed upon, was chosen, and was
marked off for this high position. She filled this
vacancy and she was given everything to furnish her,
adorn her and make her suitable for that position. She
was clothed with royal apparel and enriched with royal
gems, and riches. She was called, released, redeemed from
her exile, from her captivity and brought in as one of
that race, that royal kingdom. We are not told of any
marriage ceremony, but undoubtedly there was something by
which she had to commit herself to a covenant of loyalty,
of devotion, of faithfulness, to be what Vashti had
refused to be — alive only for the king, not for
herself.

There are a great many more details.
We are not moving on to the great and glorious end of all
this in sovereignty for the release and redemption of a
race, but it does not require a very great deal of
insight to see spiritual meaning in all this. It seems to
me to have a double application.

God chose man at the beginning for
this very thing. Adam was created for this very thing,
and brought into that glorious association with God at
the beginning... and then he did this very thing —
not to be for God but for himself, not to be for the
glory of God but to retain the glory, as did Vashti, for
himself. The result? Repudiated! And the story is written
in history, not in the Book of Esther, that the period
which followed was for Vashti a reign of vanity. Her life
purpose was gone; all the meaning of life was gone. Only
imagine what Vashti was thinking and feeling after this
as things developed and Esther came into her place!
Perhaps remorse, and many other emotions. But the fact is
that it began a reign of vanity for her, meaningless
— all the meaning gone out of life. Is not that the
human race? In Adam — called, given, potentially,
dominion. And then taking it into his own hands and
refusing to hold it for God’s glory. Then he himself
was set aside and there came this long-drawn-out period
of meaninglessness in the human race.

That is one application. But what
about Israel? Israel — chosen, called to the
kingdom, and called in the Old Testament the wife of
Jehovah. Called to that high position — and then
what? Taking it all to themselves, and not holding it for
God.

The great challenge of the coming of
God in the flesh into this world had this great issue
bound up with it. Will Israel hold everything for God, or
will they hold everything for themselves? Well, we know
what happened. “No, away with Him. We will not have
this man.” They were holding everything for their
own glory. And then came these long two thousand years of
vanity for Israel — the Vashti cut off and set
aside.

It is a sad story, is it not? But
when the race in Adam failed, God had His elect somewhere
quietly hidden. From eternity He had His bride, there in
His eternal knowledge, foreknowledge and counsels. She
was there! When Israel failed God in this matter He
brought in the church. She was there to take Israel’s
place, and all the vanity of the latter was reversed in
the saints.

Now what does this all mean as an
interpretation, if only by way of illustration, of this
letter to the Ephesians, so-called? “Chosen in Him”
— that is Esther, the instrument and vessel. When
the other fails, the element of sovereignty is at work,
bringing in this vessel foreknown, foreseen and
foreordained, knowing it, choosing it, and then, blessed
be God! calling to Himself His Esther, redeeming from
alienation, redeeming from exile and captivity.

That is the story of the church, isn’t
it? Released from the terrible embargo of the rejected
world, of the rejected race. The rejected Gentile,
Esther, called. What a word that is in the New Testament
— called!Redeemed!

And here there rushes right in at
this point, through the gap which we present, this word
“grace”. Thirteen times the apostle uses this
word in this letter! That we should be “to the
praise of the glory of his grace” (Ephesians 1:6).
Well, is not that Esther? Who was she? What was she?
Where was she? And now look — in the second place in
the kingdom! Adorned with all his glory — “the
glory of His grace”.

There is something which to our
hearts is still more precious. What had she where she
was? Nothing! But out of the royal store there was
brought for her everything that she required, but which
she did not have, not one fragment of which she had.
There was brought to her everything to make her suitable
for that most august presence of the most high — she
was clothed suitably, and provided with everything to
make her not an offence to the king, but a pleasure. What
a story of grace that is! What a lot comes in at that
point!

What is this church in nature? Or,
to come to ourselves, what are we in nature? Well, if we
know anything about ourselves at all we are prepared to
say “Anything and everything but suitable for His
presence!” No hope, no chance, no possibility
whatever of our standing in His presence as we are in
ourselves by nature. No, we are exiles, in captivity,
alienated and far off. But He brings us in and clothes us
“with the garments of salvation... the robe of
righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10) and lavishes upon us
riches. Have you traced that word through this letter? I
would like to give you the passages which occur again and
again. “According to the riches of his grace”
(Ephesians 1:7). “Unto me”, says the apostle,
“...was this grace given, to preach unto the
Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ”
(Ephesians 3:8). Esther is brought in, adorned with all
for His presence and for His service “that he might
present the church to himself a glorious church, not
having spot or wrinkle or any such thing” (Ephesians
5:27). That is the end of the story!

What is the method by which the
church will fulfil this high vocation? The marriage
relationship with the Lord, with all that that means.
That is Ephesians five, verses 22 to the end! The
marriage relationship... “I speak in regard of
Christ and of the church” (Ephesians 5:32). Oh, it
is more wonderful the more you think about it! Married to
the Lord, joined to the Lord by one Spirit. In the
natural and the flesh “the twain shall become one
flesh” (Ephesians 5:31). But in the spiritual these
twain become one spirit joined to the Lord. Married, one
flesh, one body, one life. There is no figure in all
creation that sets forth oneness, identity in the thought
of God more than the marriage relationship when it is
according to God’s mind. That is how God intends it
to be and more or less it is like that in humanity, some
more than others, when one does not, cannot live without
the other. Sometimes we open our morning paper and look
down the list of the departed, where we see two notices
— the woman has gone and within a few days the man
has gone, too. That is the ideal. I mean, there is
something there, in that. When it is according to heaven
— “I speak in regard of Christ and of the
church.” I ask you — can you live without
Christ? Listen: He cannot live without you. It is stated
here: “The church, which is his body, the fulness of
him”. Literally that is “the fulfilment of Him”.
He must have this relationship for His own fulfilment.
The marriage relationship — that is the method.

What a lot we ought to say about it!
But our time for the moment has gone and we come to the
last thing — the obligation.

The
Obligation Resting Upon Those Concerned

Well, if this is the truth, if this
is God’s revelation, if it is that and not some
beautiful story, some spiritually or religiously romantic
story — if this is spiritual truth, and not just
doctrine or teaching, (God help me and God help you if
that is all!), there is an application, surely resting
upon Esther, surely resting upon this church. “I...
beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye
were called, with all lowliness and meekness, with
longsuffering, forbearing one another in love”
(Ephesians 4:1,2).

The obligation? If this is more than
a beautiful picture, if it is something that really comes
to us as God’s word today, in this time, it puts us
under a big obligation as to our demeanour and our
conduct. “Walk worthily... with all lowliness and
meekness”. That is the demeanour, the sort of people
we ought to be, called to such heights, such a calling.
Oh, no, there is no room here for conceit, for spiritual
pride, no room for us to take the glory to ourselves and
hold it to ourselves. That is the way of Vashti. No,
“with all lowliness and meekness”. God’s
church and God’s people ought to be like that.

And conduct. Here every relationship
in this life is lifted by this concept of marriage
relationship with the Lord. Husbands, wives; wives,
husbands. That must come up on to a higher level, mustn’t
it, if it is a reflection of Christ and the church.
Children, parents; parents, children — servants,
masters; masters, servants. Every relationship is touched
by this great concept of what the church is: its high,
noble, honourable position, its wonderful dignity as
before God. And that dignity ought to come down into our
behaviour, our conduct, our relationships. We are
talking, not in the court of Ahasuerus, but in a greater,
the court of heaven, and we have a word — it is in
the New Testament — “courtesy”. “Be
courteous,” says Peter (1 Peter 3:8 — A.V.).
That surely is a very low level — good manners!
Proper behaviour! Etiquette! Yes, that comes into this.
In the court of heaven there should be good manners
amongst those who make up this bride. I fear that we
often fail in common courtesy to one another. It is true
— we have failed. Very often there are better
manners amongst the people of the world than there are
amongst Christians! That is a terrible thing to say, but
it is true. Our conduct in every relationship of life
must be touched by this high conception, which is
not only a dream, a teaching, but is stated as a fact.
“I speak in regard of Christ and of the church”
— even as husbands, wives, servants, masters,
children, parents, even as Christ, also the church.

It is challenging; it is practical.
What are you going to do about this? Are we going to say
now “Well, I determine that from this moment, by the
grace of God, I will live up to that level of my holy,
sublime calling. By the grace of God I will adjust to
this. I will do something about it. I will watch my
behaviour. I will be careful of my speech. I will keep a
guard upon how I react to others.” There is an
obligation... “I... beseech you to walk worthily of
the calling wherewith ye were called.”